Blade Runner 2049: The Coats, Contact Lenses And Haircuts

“I don’t think it’s a fashionable film at all!” Blade Runner 2049 costume designer Renée April told Vogue of her part in realising the dystopian universe. “I made costumes for the dark, wet, polluted, miserable world that Denis [Villeneuve] created. I had to hold myself back and remove anything too avant-garde or outré because it didn’t help the story. There were no superhero suits because the world needed to be realistic, and the characters relatable.”

As well as Ridley Scott’s original neo-noir aesthetic, April looked “literally everywhere” for inspiration. “I started off researching the Sixties and Seventies, but it didn’t feel right, so I dipped in and out of decades, and both Eastern and Western cultures.” Did the contemporary catwalk play a part, particularly Raf Simons, whose plastic-flecked Calvin Klein collections have drawn comparisons to the female outfits in Blade Runner, both past and present? “No! Not at all,” she laughed. “I never looked at Calvin Klein. If people see Raf in the costumes it is purely coincidence.” Rick Owens – “because his clothes are very dark” – is the only designer she name checks as having a place on her moodboard.

With a team of 50 on set in Budapest to help her make and then destroy hundreds of coats for apocalyptic authenticity, did April have any standout on-screen moments? Here she discusses the looks that got Vogue talking…

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Mariette’s Furry Coat

“I can’t tell you how I decided on the fur and plastic that make up Mackenzie Davis’s costume, because, between you and me, it doesn’t make sense. If it’s cold you wear fur, if it’s wet you wear plastic but you don’t wear them together! The rain on the fur makes Mariette look like a drowned rat, and shows that her life as a replicant is harsh. There’s something very sad about her character. She has to show off her body as her job is an escort, so originally her outfit was a lot skimpier, but Mackenzie wasn’t comfortable wearing it.”

K’s Coat Collar

“We made at least 15 coats for Ryan Gosling, as he wears one costume for the whole film. I work a lot with Denis, and I know that he moves scenes around which alters the chronology. It helps him when my costumes don’t change too much! Everyone thinks his military coat is made of shearling, but it’s laminated cotton that we painted and then attached cheap, ugly faux fur to the collar – it was $2 a yard! Leather would have become wet and very heavy in that environment, and his character is poor, he has a miserable existence in that basic apartment. The collar - pretty cool, eh? – is so he can hide himself from the pollution. We’ve seen hoods thousands of times on-screen, so I came up with a high collar that closed magnetically. I wanted the audience to just see his eyes at the beginning of the film.”

Niander Wallace’s Contact Lenses

“When I saw the set I couldn’t dress Jared Leto’s character in anything but those pyjama-kimonos. He is like the Steve Jobs of that world, he owns hundreds of those louche pyjamas and day after day he puts them on so he doesn’t have to think about it. The contact lenses that Jared wore visually impaired him for the entire time he was on set. He never saw how anything looked! I had to warn him when I made adjustments to his outfit so he wouldn't jump when I touched him."

Joi’s Plastic Mac

“The yellow plastic coat that Ana de Armas’s character wears originated in Italy. I saw big rolls of pink, yellow and orange plastic when I was researching and I knew that I had to do something with the fabric. The silver-flecked Eastern dress she wears during the now-famous bedroom scene was because I wanted something that had a reflection in it. It was important for her to look different to Mackenzie’s character, who showed a lot of skin, but for her to be able to remove the dress easily. It became all about functionality for both characters."

Luv’s Fringe

"Once you see Wallace’s base you understand that Sylvia Hoeks’s costume had to be very clean and fuss-free. Wallace calls her his angel, so I got the high collar and clean lines from that reference even though it seemed clichéd. I drew Luv’s harsh fringe in my first sketch when Sylvia hadn’t been cast yet. Once she was a part of the team we dyed her blonde hair dark to make her look stronger."